Bike Feature: ‘the Brat’ Honda TMX by 3B Customs Surigao

Look who’s back. Busy man himself Mr. Benjo Sun from Surigao has been feeding our eyes with proper restoration-101, bringing dead bikes back to life, giving them the second coming, relatively unknown already from what it has become. Just by reading his discipline of how he takes care of his custom bikes, it seems like learning from a gardener taking care of a flower to bloom on a TV show.

Really admirable. Giving out step-by-step process, his thoughts wide open, leaning with emotions in every upgrade, tank handling, frame adjustments and choice of good ol’ tires to match his design, with careful analysis considering the performance and riding experience uncompromised.

The 3B Custom ‘Brat’ Honda TMX

“..About the bike, well the base bike is a 155cc Honda TMX, another “Taxicle”. This is the first project bike that’s from out of town. The client is from Butuan City…” Benjo Sun shared us.

“..One day while checking my facebook page a message popped up. It was the client asking about my custom services and said that he liked my previous builds and asked me for a quotation. So I gave him one. But I wasn’t that optimistic at first because usually when they ask about where my shop is located, I end up getting responses like. “Wow ang layo pala sir.”, “Ay ganda sana pagawa, pero sayang ang layo nyo.” or “May gumagawa pala jan.” Well Yes! meron rin namang gumawa dito..”

“..The South is representing as well! Actually may mga inquiries about my humble shop from Luzon and Visayas but again logistics is a bit of a problem currently. But who knows, maybe one day. Luckily for me though that this client is from Butuan City its about 120 kms away from where I am located and said that he’s willing to send the bike over. A few weeks later the bike arrived, and I got started on the TMX Brat Build…”

“..The bike was running but needed some tuning up and some parts needed replacing. When the bike arrived I noticed that it had already been worked on, so I asked the client. He told me that yes, he had already started on the bike but couldn’t get to finish it as he was about leave for a job overseas. And that he wasn’t that happy with previous shop’s metal work. So we redid the welds on the tubings of the frame…”

“..And then chopped where we needed to chop for the desired look. He already installed clip on handle bars which we still used, but the headlight fitted was a bit big for the bike so we changed it to smaller one, we also changed the signal lights and tail light as well. The bike already came with some decent sized tires so we decided to use it as well…“

“..The tank was ok but the seats needed to be changed. The seat that was previously attached was custom built but was on the wide side so to speak. We decided to change to a more simple and classic look for the build. I used marine plyboard with resin laminate to help it resist water and last longer. He wanted to have the front end drop an inch or two so we did just that. We did it in such a way that even though the height was lowered to an inch it didn’t poke upwards. We decided to tinker with the innards to achieve that…”

“..The result is a cleaner look with nothing protruding upward. The switches and throttle housing was changed and like my past builds this came with my custom leather wrapped grips. The bike came with clip-on bar end side mirrors and we decided to use it as well…”

“..Also if you notice this bike has turn signals and a horn but can you spot the battery? There is no battery box hidden below the seat… it is hidden under the tank. The tiny space between the tank and the frame..”

“..The light switch and ignition switch is also hidden. The bike is also fitted with a velocity stack for the carburetor and a custom tuned bullet pipe…”

“..We also decided to paint the bike charcoal black with black decals. Giving it a minimalistic and classical but aggressive look to the bike…”